Cases within R

The High Court has inflicted another defeat on the government in its attempt to avoid responsibility for compensating people who lost final-salary pension rights following the insolvency of their employer.

In R (on the application of Age UK) v Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills [2009] EWHC 2336 HC, the High Court confirmed that the compulsory retirement of employees at or above the age of 65 by reference to the prescribed procedure in the age discrimination Regulations is lawful. However, the Court could not "see how 65 could remain" as the default retirement age, following the Government's review in 2010.

In R (on the application of Amicus - MSF section and others) v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Christian Action Research Education and others [2004] IRLR 430 HCQBD, the High Court, Queen's Bench Division, held that the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 are compatible with the EC Equal Treatment Framework Directive and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The House of Lords has held that it was unlawful for the Department of Health to issue guidance to NHS employers that doctors from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) should be appointed to training posts only if there were no suitable candidates from within the EEA to fill them.

Neil Window is a trainee solicitor, Heather Marsh, Carly Mather, Associate and David Rintoul are associate solicitors, and Catherine Barker is managing associate at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.

This article looks at recent key disability discrimination judgments, and their implications for employers. Issues considered include discrimination by association, whether or not a failure to consult over reasonable adjustments or to conduct an assessment is, in itself, a breach of the disability discrimination legislation, and the definition of disability.

In R (on the application of European Roma Rights Centre) v Immigration Officer at Prague Airport (20 May 2003), the Court of Appeal holds that it is not racially discriminatory for immigration officers at Prague airport to be more sceptical of the true intentions of Roma applicants for leave to enter the UK for non-asylum purposes than of those of a non-Roma, and therefore to question a Roma for longer and more intensively than a non-Roma.

In R (on the application of G) v Governors of X School and Y City Council [2009] IRLR 434 HC, the High Court held that a teaching assistant faced with disciplinary proceedings that could have led to an indefinite prohibition against working with children was entitled to legal representation under art.6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The High Court has held that an employee should have been allowed to be accompanied by a lawyer at a disciplinary hearing in circumstances where a consequence of the hearing could be the addition of his name to the register of individuals deemed unsuitable to work with children.

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